Page 41 of Vipers and Vendettas

Maddox leaves, and I’m alone with Daemon. I ignore him, but I feel him watching me.

‘How are you feeling?’ he asks.

‘I’m fine,’ I say, choosing a book at random and sitting at the front of the nook.

‘And your neck?’

‘It’s okay, as you can see.’

He snorts. ‘Actually, I can’t, Jules. Looks like the conjure is taking care of it.’

He sits in one of the chairs by the hearth, facing me.

‘Does Maddox know about it yet?’

I shake my head. ‘Please don’t tell him or the others.’

‘I won’t, but you’re going to need to tell them yourself, you know,’ he says.

‘Why?’

‘Because you’re ours, sweetheart, and on-call girls don’t have the luxury of keeping those kinds of secrets about their bodies.’

I don’t look at him. ‘Odds are that once they see them, they’ll want that contract ripped up ASAP,’ I quip.

‘Don’t joke about it,’ he snaps.

I give him a look. ‘I can joke about them if I want. They’re MY fucking scars, Daemon.’ I go back to my book. ‘If you can’t handle them, you shouldn't have done what you did in the stable that day.’

‘I can handle them fine,’ he growls. ‘I just want to know how you got them.’

I sigh. ‘I’ll tell you what, Mackenzie. You tell me every single thing that happened to you while you were chained in that basement by the vamps, and I’ll tell you how I got my scars AND who did them. How does that sound?’

I watch the color leach from his face. ‘You don’t really want to hear about that,’ he says quietly.

‘Ditto,’ I scoff.

He lets out a noise of disdain. ‘I already know who marked you anyway,’ he mutters. ‘Tamadrielle.’

The name makes me shiver, but I force out a laugh. ‘Come on! You know the High Fae, Daemon. They never get their hands dirty. Tamadrielle didn’t do it. He just gave the orders.’

The door opens again, and Maddox comes in. We’re silent as he sits at his desk.

‘Was there something you needed from me?’ he asks Daemon.

‘I just wanted to let you know that Axel isn’t back yet.’ Daemon replies, giving me a final, narrow-eyed look.

‘I know,’ Maddox says. ‘Try calling him if you want, but he’s probably in the Dark Realms somewhere with no signal. He’s only been gone a couple of days. Give him until tomorrow before you start organizing the search party.’

Daemon nods, and his eyes drift back to me. ‘When is our on-call girl going to be open for business?’

I give him a dirty look and retreat into the nook, away from their prying eyes. I don’t listen to Maddox’s answer.

But now that Theo’s given me a clean bill of health, it’s probably going to be soon.

ChapterSeven

Jayce